So You Want To Organize A Piano Competition? Part II

Amateur pianist and competition planner, Sally Olson, lives in Chicago (US) and is on the committee of the Chicago Amateur Piano Competition 2016. This competition, which began in 2010, is steadily growing in popularity, with entrants hailing from many countries (the 2014 winner came from Glasgow).

Few realise the tremendous amount of planning, fund-raising and marketing behind such an enterprise. Last year Sally wrote her first post for my blog about the competition (you can read it here), and in today’s post, she discusses the marketing campaign. Over to Sally.

Marketing your competition.

In September 2015 I wrote about the necessary first steps when planning a piano competition. I fully anticipated that I would write Part II a couple of months later, but this didn’t quite run to plan.

So what happened? After the venue was set and the judges selected, we focused on a marketing plan to attract competitors. It consisted of placing advertisements in music or piano based magazines, diligently posting information on our Facebook page, and writing blogs on our website. What I didn’t expect was those wanting to apply for our competition would not do so for months. By February we had about 12 applicants and we needed 60! With this level of interest, would there be a competition at all? People were most definitely noticing us because our website averaged 100 hits per day. With that in mind, we kept our fingers crossed, and moved on to planning an “Event Calendar” which was designed to create interest and anticipation for those considering applying; these attractions, which are essentially a mixture of festival and competition events, certainly caused a buzz.

When May 1st arrived (our deadline for applications) we were inundated with over 70 applicants, and by this time, had also achieved 1,413 hits on our website! Much to our surprise, the two-round competition (intended for 20 competitors) had as many applications as the three-round. So we expanded the two-round event to accommodate 29 competitors.

The advertising campaign had been a great success, with two out of three applications coming from pianists who had never previously attended the competition.

Those competing have already competed in over 150 other competitions – so they are a very talented and seasoned group of competitors.

Over ½ of the applicants requested master classes.

Our conclusions at the end of the marketing campaign? Both printed publications and social networking (including a website) have proved crucial. The organisation of other ‘extra’ events has also helped to cultivate greater interest, readership and create a following too.

In her next article, Sally focuses on the planning of extra events and customer relations.

My publications:

For much more information about how to practice piano repertoire, take a look at my piano course, Play it again: PIANO (published by Schott Music). Covering a huge array of styles and genres, the course features a large collection of progressive, graded piano repertoire from approximately Grade 1 to advanced diploma level, with copious practice tips for every piece. A convenient and beneficial course for students of any age, with or without a teacher, and it can also be used alongside piano examination syllabuses too.

You can find out more about my other piano publications and compositions here.

Social Media

Melanie Spanswick hosts the Classical Piano and Music Education Blog; she writes about practising the piano, piano music and all aspects of music education.

In demand as a writer, teacher and composer, Melanie frequently directs piano courses and workshops worldwide, adjudicates and judges piano competitions and festivals, and has written, amongst many other publications, a popular piano course called Play it again: PIANO, which is published by Schott Music.

News

A review of Play it again: PIANO Book 3 in the June edition of International Piano Magazine. You can find out more and purchase the book, or whole series here: https://en.schott-music.com/play-it-again-piano/

A String of Pearls, my first publication in the renowned Edition Schott composer series. This piano duet consists of five movements. You can find out more here, https://en.schott-music.com/shop/a-string-of-pearls-no405000.html